Five

The next few days were difficult. Stan had to work, the fallout from the discovery needed every man on the ground. The ramifications were being discussed far and wide within the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ranks. If two apparently everyday 'normal' people, with two everyday 'normal' children could have lived for so long within the community, running a business whilst operating as KGB officers, then who could they trust? It was long known that the KGB had been running illegals for decades, but often they stood out in one way or another. The Jennings just did not stand out like that. No trace of Russian accents, nothing said or done to arouse suspicion, they had blended in perfectly.

Stan himself had been closest to them, and there had been a few occasions when he had cause to wonder about their strange hours. Each time he had found nothing to support his concerns, and he had put it down to his suspicious mind, which went with the job. The Jennings habit of being away fit in with their jobs, after all how many travel agents did not travel from time to time? Long distance travel could not always fit with coming home at regular times, so their occasional return home in the early hours gave Stan a convenient hook to hang his suspicious hat on. It had only been in the days before they had fled that he had started to doubt his previous reasons for excusing their behaviour. If only he had done thorough background checks the first time he had wondered about them, years ago, they would probably be doing time by now, or deported long ago.

Sat at his desk, he came across the artists impressions of the couple described by many witnesses to their activities. He saw the likeness to Philip and Elizabeth so clearly, even if they had been in disguise at the time, wearing various wigs and altering their appearance.

He thought again about his girlfriend, Renee, wondering if there was any reason to suspect her. There was none, which would make her an even better agent than the Jennings, if she was one.

Renee was granted a few days leave to keep Henry company, her role not related to the case at hand. She spent a lot of time skirting around the edge of Henry's space, who spent most of his days immersed in video games.

The evenings were short, the office keeping Stan to long hours. Many questions were asked, many of which were loosely aimed at Beemans friendship with KGB illegals living right next door to him for many years. Beeman fended most of these off, but there was an atmosphere wherever he went.

After a day of this, Dennis called him in for a chat. "You sure you're handling this, Stan? A lot of men would be angry at themselves, feeling foolish. I know we need all hands here, but under the circumstances…...Do you want to take time off to let things settle?"

"No." Stan's reply was immediate. He wanted it to be known that he was tough enough to cope with this, most of which from his colleagues was school playground stuff really. "I'm needed here. I knew them better than anybody, and if there's something that comes up, I could probably make some sense of it."

So he stayed.

The evidence was certainly stacked up. Indisputable hard evidence recovered from the house was being studied in great detail, trying to find clues that might lead them to more illegals. Boxes of paperwork was being trawled through in fine detail, everything being checked for possible links to known Soviet networks.

The Jennings laundry room had been checked in the first house sweep, but it had taken a more thorough search to find the cupboard hidden behind the machines. A while later it was realised that there was a discrepancy in the spacing of some walls, and a second secret compartment was found behind a circuit breaker panel. A range of surveillance equipment, encryption and decryption equipment, weapons, photographic developing materials, and various items used for disguises had been found, all the sort of stuff no normal person had in their house. The rest of the house yielded nothing out of the ordinary, but now internally it was unrecognizable from the family home it had been for more than a decade. Items that could potentially be used to hide evidence were also removed for further analysis.

One of many questions that remained unanswered was the many disguises the Jennings had used. The FBI were certain they used wigs to change their appearance, but none were found in the house. That meant they had to be stored elsewhere, probably at a safe house somewhere, or a lock-up unit. The chances were that these would never be found except by chance, and even then may not come to the attention of the FBI. Searching the city of Washington and surrounding suburbs for such a find was a massive job, but one of many to be considered.

The job was growing by the hour.